Daily experiences of positive emotions can compound over time to build personal resources that enhance well-being. In a field experiment with 139 working adults, half were randomly assigned to practice loving-kindness meditation. This meditation increased daily positive emotions, which led to growth in mindfulness, purpose in life, social support, and fewer illness symptoms. These gains then predicted greater life satisfaction and reduced depressive symptoms. The findings suggest that loving-kindness meditation generates positive emotions in a way that counteracts the hedonic treadmill, making it an effective intervention for building psychological resources.
A 15-month follow-up of a loving-kindness meditation intervention found that many participants continued meditating, and those who did reported more positive emotions than those who stopped or never meditated. All participants maintained gains in psychological resources like resilience and social support made during the initial intervention, regardless of continued practice. Continuing meditators did not differ in resources at baseline but showed more positive emotions and a faster emotional response to the intervention. The results suggest that positive psychology interventions have lasting value beyond the intervention period.
A longitudinal field experiment tested whether generating positive emotions through loving-kindness meditation can improve physical health by strengthening perceptions of social connections. Participants randomly assigned to the meditation group showed increased positive emotions compared to a waiting-list control group, an effect that was stronger for those with higher baseline vagal tone, a measure of physical health. Increased positive emotions led to further increases in vagal tone, and this effect was mediated by greater perceptions of social connections. The findings suggest an upward-spiral dynamic in which positive emotions, social connections, and physical health mutually reinforce each other.